


My Mouth Tastes Like Ash in the Face of Your Sorrow

by kimmins



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Everyone is Dead, Gen, Heavy Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-03-05 12:33:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13387890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimmins/pseuds/kimmins
Summary: In the end its one last Earp for one last Revenant.





	My Mouth Tastes Like Ash in the Face of Your Sorrow

The air was dusty. No, ashy. The air was ashy. And it caught in his dry throat as Bobo knelt on the ground just outside of the barrier to the Homestead.

Not that there was a homestead anymore. The fire that had raged hours ago was nothing but embers now. And the black and charred skeleton of what was once the Earp family home sat stark against the grey sky.

It was gone. Everything was gone. Everyone was gone.

He was alone again.

Almost alone. There was figure kneeling much like he was a few feet from where the porch had been. Their body sagged with grief just like his did. The echoes of wailing had finally trailed off and left an eerie quiet on the plain surrounding the Earp land. Bobo had no more tears to cry, though his soul wept and he cursed the very land that kept him from comforting the only person he had left in this damnable world.

One last Earp, for one last Revenant.  

Movement from the woman kneeling so far away brought his attention back to the here and now. Back to the one thing he didn’t want to think about. He watched as she stood up, moving like a puppet cut loose from it's strings. The light caught on the gun in held loose in her hand and drew his attention.

The legacy tied to Peacemaker was more destructive than the gun itself ever was. The hollow black bones of the Homestead, and the bodies he knew where just out of sight were proof of that.

Pain washed over Bobo again and he shut his eyes in a vain attempt to block out the truth. The sound of boots shifting through the dirt had his eyes opening to see the last living Earp walking his way, weariness and sorrow etched into the lines of her body. But the look on Alice Holliday’s face as she met his eyes was colder than the wind blowing ash into air.

Bobo sighed to himself as she continued to make her way to him. Her steps slow and sluggish at first but the closer she got the more he could see her pull herself together. By the time she was standing in front of him the only traces of her grief were the ash stained tear tracks drying on her face. Her eyes were glinting shards of ice, and her mouth was a grim line.

He wasn’t surprised when she brought Peacemaker up to point it at him, glowing bright and clear.

“You’re the last Robert,” she said voice betraying the pain she was in. “I have to. I can’t risk-” her free hand came to rest on the gentle swell of her belly. Her child, just starting to show in the past few weeks. The facade she’d pulled up around her began to crack as her eyes watered. “I just can’t put them through this. I have to do it.” A wet breath caught in her throat.

From where he was still kneeling on the ground Bobo swallowed against the knot in his throat as she began to break down again, “I’ve already lost him, Robert. And can’t-won’t, risk losing the last part of him I’ll ever have.” The pain of losing her family so soon after losing the love of her life was too much for Alice to stand against. Tears began to run freely down her face as she crumpled.

Bobo got up just in time to catch her and help her to the ground. His own pain forgotten in the face of supporting Alice and her unborn child. The only family he’d ever have.

When he’d found out he’d been as shocked as Wynonna. They hadn’t been sure a Revenant could father a child in the first place. But if they could everyone was sure that any possible child would be as bound to the Triangle as its parent. But, somehow, it happened. Bobo had a son and that son had one of is own.

 And that boy met a girl named Alice and fell in love.

And then he died.

 Killed by Revenants when he came to visit his dying grandmother. Which brought Alice back to Purgatory before her parents could find her. And well before the curse could be broken. All like Clootie had been planning for years.

The chaos that followed had been short and bloody. But they’d done it. Clootie dead and gone, never to rise again and only a handful of Revenant’s left. Himself included. They’d had their losses; Dolls, Nicole and the most painful for him, his Angel, Waverly. But finding out he’d had a son. A legacy. A line that was cut short by that fucking demon Clootie. That had been worse than everything else that had been thrown at him in the decades since his first return from hell.

Then a marvel. Alice, pregnant with his great-grandchild. An Earp, growing his kin in her belly. A boy no less. It had been strange but wonderful.

Until the last few Revenants rallied together to bring Alice and Bobo’s world buring to the ground.

The way Alice sobbed against his chest made is heart ache. Her pain was multifaceted and intense. The loss of a family she had just found, of a home she barely knew. And the sudden terrible truth that she was the Heir.

For Bobo it was much simpler than that. The loss of Wynonna was like a blunt knife to his already broken heart. Once again he’d failed to save one of the Earp sisters. He’d failed them all one by one and now they were all gone.

He’d loved them all in his own way. From the days he’d watched them dance in the fields, still innocent and unburdened to the last time he held Willa’s hand and told her to go, or kissed Waverly’s brow as they went into the final battle, or baited Wynonna into letting him take Alice to the doctor instead of her. Those last precious moments he’d had with the three of them would haunt him for the rest of his life, and probably beyond.

He’s failed every Heir. Failed everyone of Wyatt’s descendants. But not this one or the next.

As Alice continued to sob, he rubbed her back, trying to calm her down enough for her to hear him. Because it was the most important thing he’d ever say. When she was a little bit calmer he quietly said her name, trying to get her attention before his courage failed.

Then again. And again until he barked “Alice.” He hadn’t wanted to be sharp with her but he needed her to listen very carefully.

When her red rimmed eyes met his he had to look away. The emotion in them was too much for him to look at and keep his resolve. So looking out into the distance he whispered, voice choked by swelling emotion. “Do it.”

He could tell she didn’t understand at first. But when it hit her, Alice gasped and shook her head.

With pain filled eyes he looked at her, tears he thought he didn’t have spilling over as he said, “A second ago you were ready to do it.” Her face fell as she tried to say something. “I want you, you both, to be safe. Free of the fucking curse and you can’t be with me hanging around.”

“But,” she finally managed to her get out, “You don’t deserve to be-”

Bodo cut her off. “ I deserve it. I’ve done my share Alice.” His voice caught in his throat, “And I’m so tired, child. I can’t, I just can’t lose anymore of you. Do it and end this.”

Alice pulled back from him, shaking her head. Refusing to consider what she knew she’d had to do. “I can’t Robert. I just can’t.” Her voice began to rise in pitch as she became hysterical. “I tried but, he...he.” She sobbed, “Jacob looked so much like you and I can’t. I just can’t.” She folded into herself and sobbed unable to deal with the weight of Bobo’s request.

On the verge of a break down of his own Bobo swallowed and gathered his fraying resolve. He got to his feet and hauled the crying woman to her feet. “Listen to me Alice Holliday. You will take this damn gun,” he roughly put Peacemaker into her hand and gripped it tight with his own before raising it to his head.

Bobo took one last deep breath, eyes squeezing his eyes shut as he continued, “And you will put a bullet in my head and END THIS.”

He heard her sob one more time, before she gathered her resolve. As the glow of Peacemaker burned through his closed eyes she let lose a tired, heartbroken sigh and whispered hoarsely, “Goodbye Robert. You were a good man.” He felt her began to squeeze the trigger and the last thing he heard was “I’ll name him after you, Robert, I promise.”

And one last time Robert Svane sacrificed himself for the greater good.


End file.
